01-05-2025
This startup turns trash into designer objects — which have been featured in Vogue
Fine art graduate Charlie Rudkin-Wilson's homewares have been featured in the likes of Vogue magazine and her partners include luxury retailer Fortnum & Mason.
But her coasters, rings and soap dishes aren't made from precious metals or stones — Rudkin-Wilson melts down discarded plastic containers such as shampoo bottles, empty pink tubs of Vanish stain remover and bright yellow Nesquik milkshake pots and then re-molds them into objects with a distinctive marbled effect.
A blue-toned, zigzag-shaped soap dish named "The Greek," made from grocery store yogurt and porridge pots, is for sale via Rudkin-Wilson's Mü website for £16 (around $21), while black and white single-use plastic cutlery and translucent food containers are the raw materials for pairs of £14 "Take Out" coasters.
Rudkin-Wilson, a former sustainability consultant to the TV and movie industry, said she has been "obsessing" over recycling for years and wants to change society's view of plastic as trash.
"Part of the whole mission [of Mü is to change the perception of plastic waste and to make it seem like a valuable material," she told CNBC via video call. Rudkin-Wilson wants her designs to be attractive as well as functional, she said. "There's a lot of color alchemy that goes into making sure these products are beautiful — and they work," she said.
For Rudkin-Wilson, the current approach to recycling plastic isn't working. Around 36% of all plastic produced globally is used for packaging, and about 85% of that goes to landfills, according to the UN's Environment Programme. WRAP — the Waste and Resources Action Programme — described the U.K. as "reliant" on exporting plastic for recycling, with 47% of plastic from British recycling or exporting businesses going overseas for recycling in 2021, according to its most recent figures. (Data is based on Packaging Waste Export Recycling Notes that firms are obliged to issue.)
Rudkin-Wilson launched her business during the coronavirus pandemic, initially as a physical store in London that sold refillable bottles of cosmetic and household products such as shampoo and laundry liquid. She added a recycling hub where she experimented with turning old plastic bottles into household objects, the first being the soap dish, which is now Mü best-selling product.
"I wanted something that was beautiful to look at, but that drained properly that your soap didn't stick on," Rudkin-Wilson said. Along with selling direct-to-consumer via the Mü website, Rudkin-Wilson's designs are sold at independent stores and museum shops in the U.K., plus a handful in the U.S.
Mü now operates from a studio in Margate, a town on the English coast. As CNBC spoke to her, Rudkin-Wilson sat in front of a stack of large red and purple candy tubs, emptied of their chocolates and donated by members of the public who send Mü plastic they would otherwise throw away. An online platform lets people track their trash's progress, including information on the weight of their donations and the carbon emissions saved.
This kind of data has helped Mü attract large brands keen to understand their environmental impact. Mü recycled more than 32 kilograms (70.5 pounds) of plastic waste from toiletries company Lush to make 2,000 hair combs, and Rudkin-Wilson is working with a luxury car brand to recycle plastic bonnet linings into products, after the automaker saw her appear on TV show "Dragon's Den" (the British version of "Shark Tank").
Fortnum and Mason provided Mü with packaging waste such as plastic mesh in the company's distinctive turquoise, which Rudkin-Wilson recycled into products like trays and coasters, while British Vogue called Mü the "revolution of stylish sustainability," according to an Instagram post. "Can you imagine that someone's yogurt pot that they've eaten out of is in Vogue ... just in a different form?" Rudkin-Wilson said.
Mü will soon move into a more spacious studio with equipment that can process larger amounts of plastic, and Rudkin-Wilson wants to start building pieces such as furniture out of donated plastic. She's aiming to raise around £250,000 to help fund the expansion, and would also like to have a marketing budget to help acquire new customers.
Rudkin-Wilson said she hopes companies start to take responsibility for their plastic waste — both from the manufacturing process and after consumers have finished using their products. "The industry will change and more private innovative businesses will appear, moving the industry away from traditional inefficient kerbside recycling," Rudkin-Wilson told CNBC via email.
